Don't Stare at the Sun
by ViolaRosa98
Summary: Shiro should have seen this coming. He may be the Garrison's golden boy, but he's not the one whose eyes shine like the sun. That's Matt. / A.k.a., Shiro and Matt celebrate their selection to the Kerberos mission, but the only thing Matt wants is Takashi Shirogane.


**Author's Note: I wrote this one-shot as a birthday gift to my dear friend/sister, DeeDee, since Shatt is her OTP. I hope you like it, DeeDee!**

 _ **Maji ka! Nani itteru no!**_ **is the transliteration of** **まじか! 何言ってるの!, a Japanese phrase that roughly translates to "oh my God! What are you saying?!"**

* * *

"How does it feel to be an alumnus of the Galaxy Garrison?"

"It's a little scary, to be honest."

"Well, that's understandable," Shiro assures Matt as he glances around the younger boy's now-empty dorm room. "I mean, our future isn't guaranteed, never mind _known_ ," he adds, stepping forward so that he's standing next to Matt, who's standing in front of the mirror above the sink in the bathroom connecting his room with the adjacent one. Shiro is more than a full head taller than Matt, even counting the inch or two the recent graduate's shaggy hair adds to his height, and he takes advantage of that fact by playfully resting his arm atop Matt's head. "Are you excited to go to Kerberos?" he asks.

The corners of Matt's mouth twitch upwards into a smile, but his eager grin disappears as his gaze falls to the orange and white cadet uniform he's still wearing. "Yes. I just… I just wish I could convince the Garrison to promote me to Second Lieutenant _before_ the launch. I look like a _kid_ in the photos in the official press release because I'm wearing this _stupid_ cadet uniform."

"Well, you _are_ only _barely_ eighteen, Matt," Shiro points out, righting himself and glancing down at the younger male. "You're not exactly a world-weary old man."

"I know. I don't want to be," Matt replies. "I just… I don't want everyone to think that I'm not ready to go to Kerberos just because I'm fresh out of the simulator, you know? I'm _ready_ for this, Shiro."

"You don't have to convince me of that," Shiro soothes, placing a comforting hand on Matt's shoulder. "You wouldn't have been selected if you weren't qualified and ready. If the Garrison wanted someone with more experience to serve as the Junior Science Officer on this mission, they would have _chosen_ someone with more experience — but they didn't. They chose _you_ , Matt. _You_ were selected, and rightfully so. You're one of the brightest people to ever walk through these halls."

Shiro turns Matt so that he's facing him, and the look in the younger male's amber eyes — a look both determined and insecure, as if he's desperate to prove himself but also desperate to be told that he already has — reminds Shiro of himself. It wasn't too long ago that Shiro was in Matt's shoes, after all.

 _It_ has _been the better part of a decade, though…_ Shiro muses.

"You're not the kid I was introduced to three years ago — the kid who applied to the Garrison because he thought it'd be cool to meet aliens and because he wanted to follow in his father's footsteps," Shiro continues, pushing all thoughts about how long it's been since he graduated to the back of his mind. He can depress himself by thinking about his seemingly long-gone youth another day. "You're still a fun-loving Meme King™ with a big heart and an even bigger brain, but you've matured so much over the years, Matt. You have a good head on your shoulders, and you're both more competent _and_ more pleasant to be around than most of the officers I work with. You're more than ready for this, and I'm glad we're going on this mission together. I wouldn't want to be stuck in a spaceship for two months with anyone else."

"Thank you, Takashi," Matt murmurs. He glances down at the floor as a blush colors his cheeks, then looks up at Shiro's reflection and grins. "I still can't believe that I'm going to the farthest corner of space that we can reach with the Garrison's very own golden boy," he admits. "We're gonna have a great time."

"I'm sure we will," Shiro agrees, slinging his arm around Matt's waist and smiling at the sight of them together in the mirror.

* * *

"You are a _saint_ ," Shiro declares as he grabs the bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon out of the waitress' hands. He sets it down on the dining table with a _thud_ , then turns back to the waitress. "You've been so attentive. We really apper—uh… _appreciate_ … it."

"We can put in a good word for her when we meet aliens!" Matt suggests excitedly.

"Oh, uh, th—thank you?" the waitress stammers. She looks back and forth between Shiro and Matt a few times, then shifts her attention to the other people that are seated at the table Commander Holt had reserved for the boys' party celebrating their selection to the Kerberos mission as well as Matt's graduation from the Garrison. "Do, uh, do y'all need anything else?"

"Yeah, as a matter of fact, I do! I need your _phone number_!" Matt crows.

The other attendees cackle in response, but Shiro slaps Matt upside his head. "Matt!" he exclaims. "That's not polite!" He looks over his left shoulder, at the waitress who's still standing in the space between himself and Matt, and schools his expression into something more serious than the drunken grin he's been wearing ever since he finished his entrée and "dinner and drinks" turned into _just_ drinks. "You'll have to excuse Matt, Miss," he says, attempting to placate the waitress. "He just graduated and is feeling a little cocky."

"Do _you_ wanna feel how cocky I am, Shiro?" Matt asks, turning to look at Shiro. He cups his junk and wiggles his eyebrows at the older male, a suggestive smirk on his freckled face.

"Do I… uh… _what_?!" Shiro stammers.

"Who knew all it takes to turn Shiro into a stuttering tomato is a single dick joke?" Keith taunts from where he sits in the chair to Shiro's right.

"Keith!" Shiro cries, turning away from Matt to shoot Keith a betrayed look. "I thought we were _Broganes_!"

"We are," Keith assures the elder "Brogane," a fond smile on his face. "But I'm taking advantage of the fact that you're not gonna remember anything that goes on tonight tomorrow," he adds, smirking as he flicks Shiro's temple, then reaches past the elder pilot to grab and refill his wine glass.

"Hey, Shiro!" Abby, one of Shiro's former classmates turned Garrison instructor, sings, calling Shiro's attention away from Keith and towards her. "Do you think the aliens y'all might meet will hate you because Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet?"

"Why would they hate _me_?" Shiro retorts as the waitress takes her leave. "It's not like _I_ re—uh… _revoked_ … Pluto's planetary status. I love Pluto!"

"I like Uranus more," Matt interjects.

Shiro spits out his drink.

* * *

"Okay, okay, wait a second. Will y'all even be able to _talk_ to the aliens?"

"Well… yeah, probably? I mean, Matt's a communications _expert_! I'm sure he'd figure out a way for us to talk to them," Shiro answers, laying a hand on Matt's shoulder. He shifts his gaze from Matt's friend, who asked the question, to Matt, and the brown-haired boy smiles.

"I know, like, _every_ coding language — including the ones my dad and I invented — and I can speak four _actual_ languages fluently. I'm sure at least _one_ of them will be similar enough to whatever language aliens speak to have a conversation," Matt states confidently.

"You do realize that _meme_ is not a language, right, Matt?" Keith interjects.

"It is _so_ a language, Keith!" Matt cries defensively. "It's modern hieroglyphics!"

"You should ask the aliens you meet if they helped us build the pyramids and whatnot," Sebastian, one of Matt's friends, suggests before Keith can retort. "We could settle that debate once and for all, then."

"What if we're holding some of their relatives hostage in Area 51?" Alek, the second-best fighter pilot from Shiro's graduating class (after Shiro himself), asks. "They'll be mad."

"Oh, please, Alek! If there's anyone who would know whether or not we've made contact with aliens before, it'd be Commander Holt, and he says we haven't!"

"What if he's lying?"

"He wouldn't lie!"

"It doesn't matter, y'all. What are the chances that—?"

"I agree! The aliens aren't going to hate us because we're experimenting on ETs in Area 51. They'll hate us because we don't even consider their home planet a planet!"

"Oh, _give it a rest_ , Abby! It's not like the aliens will know the difference between a planet and a dwarf planet! I mean, would aliens even have a _concept_ of dwarfs?"

" _Psst_ , Takashi," Matt whispers, leaning to his right to bring his mouth closer to Shiro's ear. He grabs hold of Shiro's forearm to keep himself from falling off his chair, then continues. "Do you really think we'll run into aliens on Kerberos?"

"Well, Commander Holt, Shiro, and Matt could bring a picture of Christmas elves to show th—."

"Not all dwarfs are _elves_! That's so offensive!"

"I don't know," Shiro answers, shrugging. "It'd be… it'd be _cool_ if we did, but… well, we have no reason to believe that there's intelligent life on Kerberos."

"Yeah, not all dwarfs are elves, but all elves are dwarfs, so…"

"This is starting to sound like one of those riddles."

"Well, no one's ever traveled that far from Earth before. We haven't been able to gather evidence of intelligent life so far out into space until now," Matt counters. "We're going there to collect ice samples to test for bacteria and whatnot because we're _assuming_ that intelligent alien life doesn't exist within our solar system, but Kerberos is _really_ far away, Shiro. What if—?"

"Okay, wait a second. Do aliens even _have_ holidays? I mean, either way, they'd still have to explain Christmas to them…"

"What if there's more out there than we expect?" Shiro asks, finishing Matt's thought.

"Of course! Every civilization has holidays!"

Matt nods.

"Well, what if they land on Kerberos on an alien holiday? That'd be rude."

"It's not like the Garrison has a calendar of alien holidays to prevent that, though."

"We should ask the aliens being held in Area 51 when their holidays are."

"There _are_ no aliens being held in Area 51!"

"There are!"

"Are _not_!"

"Are!"

"Well…" Shiro murmurs, tuning everyone else out so that he can focus on his thoughts, which are racing a mile a minute. "I guess when we go to space, we'll just have to—."

"—represent the human race?" Matt smirks, finishing Shiro's thought.

Shiro nods and holds out a fist for Matt to bump. He does, grinning with all the bravado of a man with a death wish all the while — which is appropriate, Shiro thinks, considering the fact that there's a part of Shiro that can't help but feel like he and the Holts are signing their wills every time they sign a legal liability release form.

There's another part of Shiro that's excited, though. He couldn't care less about the ice samples that Commander Holt and Matt are going to collect and examine, truth be told, but he's absolutely _delighted_ that, among the _hundreds_ of pilots that were trained at the Garrison, _he_ was the one chosen to help test the limits of humans' space travel capabilities by going where no one has ever gone before. He's itching to see a new corner of the cosmos, and he's grateful that he gets to explore the unknown with Commander Holt, a man he's admired ever since he first met him nearly a decade ago, and Matt, a space-loving nerd with a lopsided grin and sunshine in his eyes.

"Shiro?"

" _Shiro!_ "

"Hmm?" Shiro mumbles, reluctantly turning away from Matt so that he can face the other attendees. "What'd you say?" he asks as he does his best to clear all thoughts of Matt's gorgeous amber eyes, downright _shining_ with energy and excitement (and a good amount of wine), out of his mind.

"What will your first words to the aliens be?"

"You've gotta choose something _badass_ , dude. You don't get a second chance to make a first impression, you know!"

"If we run into aliens on Kerberos," Shiro starts, cocking one eyebrow and shooting Alek a look, "all I'm saying is 'We come in peace.' I'm not looking for trouble."

"Aw, Shiro!" Matt cries. "What if the aliens are all big and tough? 'We come in peace' doesn't exactly project strength."

"I'll _yeet_ you across Kerberos, then," Shiro responds, rolling his eyes good-naturedly.

"Aw, Takashi!" Matt laughs. He places one hand over his heart, then bats his eyelashes at Shiro. "It'd be an honor to be _yote_ by you."

"Did you… did you just say _yeet_ in the past tense?" Shiro deadpans.

"Yes."

"I hate you."

"You love me."

"I do."

* * *

"Goodnight, Commander Holt. I'll see you at work on Monday."

"Yeah, goodnight, Commander Holt!"

"I'll see you again if the Garrison gives me a job!"

"Thanks again for paying for dinner!"

"Oh, and congratulations again on Kerberos!"

"Thank you, everyone," Commander Holt chuckles. "Goodnight!"

The elder Holt watches nine of the party attendees file out of the room, then turns toward the remaining three: Shiro, Keith, and Matt. "Come, Keith. I'll drive you back to the Garrison," he says. He clasps Keith's shoulder once the cadet reaches him, then, oblivious to how the young pilot stiffens at his touch, turns back toward Shiro and Matt. "I'll be back in about half an hour, Shiro. I can drive you home then, alright?"

"Aw, _Dad_!" Matt whines. "Can't Shiro come home with us?"

"Well, _I'm_ certainly not opposed to that idea," Commander Holt replies. "What do you say, Shiro?"

Shiro glances at Matt, then turns toward Commander Holt, then shifts his gaze back to Matt, arguing with himself all the while. Commander Holt won't have to drive him home if he just goes home with him, which is great because he doesn't want to inconvenience his superior, who's already doing him a favor by driving Keith back to the Garrison. If he goes home with the Holts, however, he'll be spending the entire night in close proximity to Matt, who's still fairly drunk and, consequently, uninhibited.

"… if you're sure crashing at your place wouldn't be an imposition," Shiro decides, refocusing his gaze on Commander Holt. He'll be damned if he betrays the Commander's trust or jeopardizes his friendship with Matt by having a drunken fling with the boy. It doesn't matter that Matt's currently throwing himself at Shiro; a _fun_ night with Matt is simply too risky. If Shiro stares at the sunshine in Matt's eyes for too long, he'll blind himself.

"Oh, don't be silly, Shiro. It's not an imposition at all!" Commander Holt responds. "If you want to repay me, though, just get Matt to drink some water. Colleen will _kill_ me if she finds out I allowed him to get drunk tonight," he adds, chuckling, before he guides Keith out the door and waves goodbye.

Shiro watches the two leave, then turns back to Matt and gently punches his arm. "Come home with you?" he repeats, feigning offense. "I'm not a dog, Matt, nor am I a prostitute."

"Are you sure? You _are_ on all of the Garrison's recruitment materials, you know," Matt smirks. He reaches up and, giggling, pinches Shiro's cheeks. "This face sells; your body would, too. And I've got some money, Takashi," he adds, winking.

" _Maji ka! Nani itteru no!_ " Shiro exclaims, immensely thankful that he and Matt are alone in the room because his face is now as red as the Cabernet the latter is still drunk on.

The bewildered look Matt shoots him is unfairly adorable, but Shiro just takes a deep breath and continues. "Okay, that's enough, Matt. You're drunk, and you need…" _Me?_ "You need to drink some water, then sleep this off." He grabs Matt's wine glass and fills it with water from the pitcher on the table, then holds the glass up to Matt's lips. "Drink," he commands.

"Hmm," Matt hums as he places his hand over Shiro's and tilts the glass towards his lips. "This isn't how I imagined you getting me wet, Shiro."

"M-Matt…" Shiro entreats, doing his best to ignore the way his name sounds when it comes out of Matt's chapped but still delightfully pink lips. "Shut up and drink. I…" He takes another deep breath and brushes Matt's bangs away from his eyes, then continues. "If anyone finds out I let you get drunk underage, I could lose my spot on the Kerberos mission, and I don't want that to happen. I… I'm really looking forward to going there… with you."

"I'm looking forward to it, too, Takashi," Matt whispers. He downs his water like a shot, then smiles up at Shiro. "I'm looking forward to it, too."


End file.
